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Thursday, May 26, 2011

흥부와 놀부 Heungbu and Nolbu

This story is called 흥부와 놀부 Heungbu and Nolbu, and I got the original Korean text from the Parrot Fairy Tale Series by SaeSaem publishing company (지혜와 슬기 주머니 14 새샘 명작 동화) all rights reserved to them!

This story is about two brothers Heungbu and Nolbu. Heungbu, the younger brother is kind while Nolbu, the older brother, is cruel. After their parents death Nolbu kicks Heungbu out of the house and ignores him when asked for help. In the story Nolbu learns what it means to be compassionate and generous.

Once upon a time there were two brothers, Heungbu and Nolbu. The younger brother Heungbu had a kind heart, but the older brother Nolbu was very greedy and crancky. Nolbu was always planning. “How can I play tricks on people today?”

‘Use a slingshot to break pots’, ‘hit a crying baby’, ‘pile drive all of the pumpkins’, ‘Spoil something when all is going well’.... Nolbu’s grumpyness got worse everyday, which made his parents always worried.

Every time while they were eating, Nolbu assaulted Heungbu. “Heungbu, Because of your kids all of our food will run out, this man.” One day, Heunbu and Nolbu’s parents passed away. “Heungbu! From now on all of our house’s property is mine. So take your family and get out right now!”

“If you say such things so suddenly, how can I manage with my little children... .”

Heungbu’s family went to a shabby looking empty house, and worked for others living difficultly. But this year a famine came and Heungbu’s family had nothing to eat. “I’m hungry!” Because Heungbu felt sorry for his children he went to go find Nolbu.

“Brother! Have you been well? Your foolish little brother has come to get food.” “Brother? I don’t have any brother like you. Leave right now!” “Oh dear, brother I will pay you back next time.” As Heungbu kept begging, Nolbu took a bat and hit Heungbu.

While the helpless Heungbu turned around, he came out and stopped by the kitchen. “Sister-in-law please give me one container of rice.” “What the heck is the begger from this morning doing here? Here you are, rice!” Nolbu’s wife hit Heungbu’s cheek with the rice spatula. “Sister-in-law, I need more rice so please put some more rice on the spatula and hit me on the cheek.” “What the hell?” She wiped the rice off the spatula and hit im on the other side of the cheek.

Swallows had made a nest in Heungbu’s house’s eaves, and Heungbu put a plank to secure the nest. There were baby swallows living in the nest. One day the baby swallows living in the nest were crying. Looking at the nest, there was a big snake grabbing onto the baby swallows in order to eat them. “Hey!” Heungbu batted away the snake with a rod.

At that time, one of the swallows fell from the nest. “Oh, the swallow’s leg is broken!” Heungbu’s family sincerely gave treatment to the swallow. Some days later the swallow could fly in the sky again.

When it became fall, the swallows flew to Gangnam. The swallow who was at Heungbu’s house told the whole story to the swallow country’s king. “AwAw! These must be really good people. You should repay the favor they did for you right away!”

When it became spring again, the swallows flew back. “Chirp Chirp” one of the swallows dropped a seed infront of Heungbu’s family. “Oh dear! The swallow came holding a seed in it’s mouth!” Heungbu’s family was surprised and planted the seed.

Before they knew it, the seed sprouted, and each day as it was growing bigger and bigger. The vine covered the roof and the round gourd opened. “Honey! Look at that gourd. It's very ripe.” “I see. Today lets get look at the gourds.” Heungbu picked three gourds and started to saw them.

In the third gourd, silk poured out from inside. “Oh oh! How can this happen?... .” Heungbu’s family instantly became wealthy. In Heungbu’s neighborhood, his family divided out rice to the poor, sold the treasures and silk, and used that money to build a house.

Nolbu heard this news and came to find Heungbu. “Heungbu! Come and see me!” “Brother. Have you been well during this time?” “Well, and where did you steal this stuff from?” “Brother, how could I steal? The truth is... .”

In the following year, it became spring and the swallows also flew to Nolbu’s house and made a nest. Nolbu only was watching the swallow’s nest. “That guy’s swallow, that swallow should fall down and break its leg... .” Nolbu who couldn't wait, broke the swallow’s leg on purpose. “Chirp! Chirp!” “Honey! Quickly bring the medicine and bandages.” “Hahaha we will also become rich.” “Swallow. Bring us back one seed from Gangnam.”

The next year’s spring, the swallow who went to Gangnam came back. They also brought one seed to Nolbu’s house too. Nolbu planted the seed and it grew. While the vines grew rapidly the gourds became ripe and desirable. Nolbu picked three gourds and started sawing. “Saw, saw, saw, lots of treasure come out!”

(Thump! Bang!) “Ack! What is this? S-Someone help!” “Yes, you! I know what you’ve done wrong!” “Oh no! What is this that you’re talking about?” Goblins that came out of Nolbu’s gourd violently beat him and with a magic club destroyed Nolbu’s house and property all together.

With a shabby apperance, Nolbu’s family went to find Heungbu. “Heungbu!” “Brother! What happened?” While crying Nolbu told Heungbu the whole story. “Don’t worry. Brother, come live together in our house.” “Heungbu! I was wrong all this time. Please forgive me.”

그 이후로 놀부는 착한 사람이 되어 흥부의 가족과 잘 살았습니다.

Since then Nolbu became a kind person and he lived with Heungbu’s family happily ever after.

*This story taught the lesson of treat others the way you want to be treated, and that you should appreciate what you have. Nolbu is always mean to others and looking for a way to get more wealth, but in the end suffers from his actions and learns his lessons. Heungbu is kind and always helps others and is therefore rewarded for his good actions, teaching the kids who read this story the importance of "doing the right thing". Around the world helping others is a common notion, but in Asia culture helping your family when they are in trouble is particularly stressed. The fact that Heungbu always lets Nolbu, his older brother, take advantage of him, shows this undying support and respect that he has for Nolbu even though Nolbu doesnt reciprocate Heungbu's love. The role of the younger brother is that of always deffering to whatever the older one says, which is why Nolbu was able to kick Heungbu out of the house without much of a fight even though they were both legitimately owners of their fathers things.

6 comments:

Hi, I am from Indonesia. I am freshman about this language. I am very interesting abou koran language, therefor I learn a bit, and i try to find a hangul korean story with english translation. Then i found it in your site. Thanks your site is helpful. And I hope you want to help me about learning korean..If you have account of FB, I really want to add you as a friend..#I am sorry if my english is bad, :)